Fireworks
by Emberjack
Summary: An Independence Day holiday special! The NEST team members didn't tell the Autobots about the explosive celebration, so when the fireworks wake them up in the night, Lennox has to explain before anything actually gets blown up. One-shot.


"Huh?" Ironhide awoke with a start.

He looked around in confusion; it was dark inside the hangar, and the other Autobots were still in recharge. It wasn't like him to pop out of recharge like this. Then he heard it: an explosion. What was going on? It sounded like there was some kind of commotion outside—were the NEST soldiers all out of bed? If something was going on, why wouldn't they sound the alarms and let the Autobots know what was happening? There were too many questions, and Ironhide was not one to sit around and ponder them.

"Optimus," he opened a direct channel to his Prime, who was recharging somewhere nearby. He waited half a moment for Optimus to come to his senses before finishing, "Something's going on outside," and then driving over to the hangar doors.

Optimus followed Ironhide to the doors and opened them up so that they could see outside. The Autobots had all been in recharge since the night before, and the sun seemed to have just finished going all the way down for the day. The sky was rapidly darkening, and Optimus and Ironhide were both a little surprised to see that nearly the entire base was awake and outside, huddled in close quarters. However, they were even more surprised when they saw a bomb burst in the sky above them. Ironhide wasted no time in driving over to the humans and transforming to stand in a protective stance nearby, his cannons almost instantly ready to fire.

There were several complaints and exclamations of surprise from the crowd of people, but what stood out most to Ironhide was Lennox's voice calling out, "Whoa! Whoa, whoa; take it easy, Ironhide."

"What?" Ironhide's tone was harsh in his surprise. Did the humans not realize they were being attacked?

Another bomb going off made Ironhide turn away and begin taking aim, but he couldn't seem to find the offender. Could they be invisible? If they were, they weren't taking proper advantage of it; they should have killed everyone by now.

"Ironhide!" Lennox called again, his vocals betraying the slightest hint of alarm, which forced Ironhide to look down at him once again.

Lennox was walking over to him, picking his way through the crowd of soldiers and muttering. Ironhide couldn't tell if he was saying something to the men as he passed, or just mumbling to himself, but it was implied that he hadn't expected to see Ironhide tonight. Optimus arrived beside Ironhide, transforming so that he could be ready to ward off any impending attack.

"It's not what you think," Lennox explained to the two impatiently waiting Autobots, finally standing at their feet, "It's not an attack."

Another unexpected explosion sounded somewhere behind him, and though Ironhide did his best to ignore it, he couldn't hold back a slight flinch.

"Then _what _is it?" Ironhide demanded.

"It's- well.." Lennox hesitated, "A celebration."

"Celebration?" Optimus asked, curiosity taking hold of his processors. He was like that sometimes, but Ironhide scoffed.

"You celebrate with bombs?"

"They're called fireworks," Lennox insisted.

Before Ironhide could open his mouth, Optimus asked, "What are you celebrating?"

"It's the fourth of July," Lennox began, "we're celebrating the anniversary of the day we gained our independence as a nation."

"With _bombs_?" Ironhide asked again.

"_Fireworks_. They're not bombs, really, but we Americans do like to have a bit of a bang at our parties. Tonight, these babies are going off all over the country."

Optimus hummed thoughtfully. One of the other soldiers jabbed Lennox in the side, seemingly with the intent to remind him of something.

"Listen," his voice was friendly when addressing the Autobots, but he glared at the man who had jabbed him, "These guys are trying to watch the show, so it'd be nice if you could- I don't know- sit down?"

"Hmm? Oh," understanding quickly dawned on Optimus Prime, and, taking the hint, he transformed back into his alt mode, parking beside the soldiers rather than in front of them.

Ironhide wasn't sure if he was finished with this conversation, so he grunted at Lennox with some displeasure to let him know how he felt about it before following Optimus' lead and parking beside the big rig.

"Aw, come on, Ironhide," Lennox stated as he climbed on top of the hood, "We both know how much you love a good explosion."

"I don't like them when they're surprises," Ironhide grumbled.

"Oh," Lennox seemed to realize something, "Did we wake you?"

Ironhide said nothing, and Lennox took his silence as confirmation.

"Sorry," he apologized, "I would have warned you earlier, but we were kind of trying to avoid waking you guys up. You all looked pretty beat last I saw."

It was at this point that Optimus decided to enter the conversation, "Tell us more about this celebration, William. Who did you gain independence from?"

"Great Britain."

"Are they not across the ocean from you?"

"They are. That was part of the problem. See, about 200 years ago, the US was little more than a bunch of British colonies. They didn't give us many rights, but they sure did enjoy taxing the crap out of us without any of us having a say in it. Not great. Anyway, we decided that we didn't like the way they were ruling us and fought a big war over it. In the end, they agreed to grant us our independence. The agreement was all signed and proper on July fourth, 1776."

"You speak as if you were there."

"Even though it was more than 200 years ago, those people were my people, and I've seen my share of war fighting for this country. I wasn't there, but I relate."

"Hey, boys!" one of the soldiers called out, "Let's all stand and sing the national anthem!"

The whole group immediately began scrambling to their feet. Lennox slid off of Ironhide's hood and placed his right hand on his chest over where his heart would be. His left hand rested above a headlight on the TopKick beside him. The first notes of the Star-Spangled Banner reached his ears and he closed his eyes to listen.

"Do you not know the words?" Ironhide asked when he noticed that Lennox wasn't singing.

"Of course I know the words," Lennox nearly snapped, "I just want to listen right now."

"So touchy," Ironhide teased.

Lennox decided to ignore the Autobot and looked up to the sky, where fireworks were still exploding in dazzling displays every few moments. The song, the occasion, the fireworks… it brought a tear to his eye.

"_O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave_," Lennox sang softly.

The song was over. The men remained standing a few moments before slowly sitting back down on the ground. Lennox sentimentally patted Ironhide's hood.

"So, what now?" Ironhide asked.

"Now," Lennox answered, climbing back on top of the hood, "you relax and enjoy the show."

**A/N: **Tbh not sure if a lot of people already wrote about this or not, and I don't really care. It's been years since I've posted anything here on fanfiction, and I was just excited to write this one out, and especially excited to share it for the holiday! I love Independence Day celebrations, and this baby just popped into my head, like, this morning, so of course I couldn't resist writing it. That's it, and I hope you enjoyed! J


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